HootSuite Vs Buffer – Which is a Better Social Media Scheduling Tool?

Hootsuite vs Buffer, which is better? This question is often asked when comparing social media scheduling tools. It’s a very funny thing because both are very similar. Though both fall into the category of “Social Media Management Software”, they have stark differences and benefits. Let’s see the key aspects of both services to determine whether or not it’s useful.

Social Media Websites Support

It’s important to find out the availability of the services you can get regarding the social network support. For a marketer, the below graph will be very helpful:

HootSuite

Social Network Support

Buffer

Available

Facebook Profiles

Available

Available

Facebook Pages

Available

Available

Multiple Twitter Accounts

Available

Available

Personal LinkedIn Profiles

Available

Available

LinkedIn Company Pages

Available

Available

LinkedIn Groups

Available

Available

Google+ Pages

Available

Not Available

Pinterest Boards

Available

Available

WordPress

Not Available

Available

FourSquare

Not Available

Available

MySpace

Not Available

Available

Mixi

Not Available

So, there are certain websites that both software supports. However, after looking onto the above details, you can easily pick the one that targets the most social networks according to your needs.

Mobile Support

Buffer

Buffer allows you to view scheduled posts and the history of posts published via Buffer. You can look into the metrics of each scheduled post to access the data. On top of that, Buffer gives you the ability to post on any of the connected accounts or websites either instantly or through scheduling.

The drawback is that you can’t modify your scheduled posts for each connected social media network. Instead, you’re referred to the website that may not be mobile optimized.

The Bookmarklet feature lets you bookmark the websites and add them to your Buffer network.

HootSuite

HootSuite provides you with an application that also has some limitations. Currently, it supports Facebook profiles and pages, personal LinkedIn accounts, Twitter accounts and Foursquare. You can manage the social networks through the app; they are completely independent of your web-based account.

HootSuite not only enables posting but it also allows you to monitor each connected social network. Also, you can read the previously posted content on a particular social network within the app. With HootSuite, it’s quite easy to connect with the main stream for each network so you can monitor the posts by your connections.

The Stats tab within the app is designed specifically for Twitter accounts. You can view the recent tweets and check the clickthroughs. If you don’t know when a particular post was tweeted, you can add the “time” filter and narrow your results.

A tab is designed to access Twitter contacts for each connected Twitter account (Personal account & your business accounts).

How Buffer Works

The Buffer extension for your browser allows you to view your past articles, formatting and adjusting them as needed. Let’s say you have 5 articles but you want 2 of them to be posted to specific websites, it’s possible.

You must understand that Buffer can’t automate your social media activities. It’s not like you’re going to add one article or post and Buffer will optimize it according to each social media platform. Instead, you have to create and craft the posts that best display on each social media website.

Consider Buffer as a post scheduler; it will make sure that a post is published at right time. So, Buffer is giving you freedom to not worry about everyday postings. You can schedule the posts and plan ahead.

But, you need to make sure that you’re scheduling the posts at the peak hours when most of your targeted audience is online. That’s possible through social media research.

How HootSuite Works

HootSuite is like Buffer in that it schedules your posts but HootSuite does it differently. Create and craft your posts and then you have to specifically choose a date and time before you click the “Schedule” option. Not only this, you will need to select your desired social network for each post.

HootSuite provides you with a bulk scheduler but using it would require using spreadsheets. Also, you will be getting a few options.

Auto Scheduler feature is also available that asks for required social networks after the post is added. It will then publish the post on the desired social networks one by one with a slight difference of time. So, you’re not filling up your social networks at the same time that could be overwhelming and less intriguing.

HootSuite’s built-in reporting is an extremely powerful tool that builds customer reports to provide you with the in-depth insight of how a particular social network is performing. You can choose to receive those emails on regular basis.

Links shared with HootSuite will be shortened into .ly link service. It’s a renowned link shortening service that gives your audience a small link that redirects to your particular post. So, you can also receive .ly click summaries directly to your e-mail.